Bout of Books 40 - Sign-Up Post

 

The May Bout of Books is the one that gives me the best chance to actually do some substantial reading. My grades are turned in, the big indie-rock festival I go to every spring is over. The only thing stopping me this week is one all-day mini-conference thing at work on Monday. After that, I should be unscheduled and ready to read.

What is Bout of Books? According to the hosts,

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 13th and runs through Sunday, May 19th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, daily Discord questions, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For all Bout of Books 40 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I noticed that they've moved the scheduled chats from the sewer that is Twitter/X to Discord which is nice, though I rarely remember to participate in the chats.

 I've been trying to figure out what I really want to focus on reading this month for my research. I've been working on two different books over the last few years, and summer is the only time I really have to do research. One of these books is about "geek culture" and political conflict in science-fiction and fantasy, which I've been calling "Geek Wars" as a working title. The other one is about anti-fascist politics in the U.S. But I have a couple of other pressing work-related things to do that involve reading. I'm teaching a brand new graduate course in the fall, and need to prepare for that. I've also got a book review to write this summer - and both the book review and the new graduate course are related to the project on anti-fascism. I always try to do at least some "non-work" reading as well, and those books continue to be tempting. 

So far, I'm thinking I'll continue reading Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Trump, which was my choice for the academic reading challenge category 14: "book about an election or elections in general." It's not the best book about an election, but it's a detailed account of the backroom politics of a lot of capmaigns and Democratic strategizing over the last 8 years or so, so is worth reading. 

 I'm also going to continue reading Michael A. Gould-Wartofsky's The Occupiers: the Making of the 99 Percent Movement, which I'll be teaching in that grad seminar in the fall. 

 If I have time, I'm going to go back to Jo Walton's Informal History of the Hugos, which has the benefit of being both fun and related to the "geek wars" project. A less fun book that I started reading for "Geek Wars" before I was forced to focus all my energy on teaching last spring is the Routledge Companion to Science Fiction by Mark Bould and Sherryl Vint (the edition I have doesn't include Adam Roberts).

 I have already given up on this week's book-club selection, 2312 which I'm having trouble getting into, and which is just too long to finish in a couple of days, even if I was really loving it. 

 I guess we'll see what happens. Hopefully I'll be able to settle down and focus on reading something, as I've been very distracted for the last week.